4/20/17
(Helen)- A male hiker was injured Wednesday when he fell from Raven Cliff Falls in Northern White County. White County Public Safety Director David Murphy said, along with White County Fire Department personnel from Stations 2 and 3, Mutual Aid from City of Helen Fire Dept. and Lee Arrendale Fire Brigade (LACI) were dispatched around 3 PM.
Murphy said the initial call was about a hiker who had fallen from the top of the waterfall area at Raven Cliff’s, which is located off Richard Russell Scenic Highway.
According to Murphy, the male subject had hiked into Raven Cliff falls and had made his way to the top of the falls, while there he slipped and fell onto the last ledge before the main drop of the falls, which is about a 55 foot vertical drop, said Murphy.
Emergency personnel hiked in and removed the patient from the falls to an area where Georgia State Patrol aviation, using their Bell 429 helicopter with a hoist, lifted the injured hiker out.
The patient was then brought to a White County Med unit where paramedics further evaluated him and then he was transported to Northeast Georgia Medical Center with, what Murphy described as non-life threatening injuries.
The entire operation took about 3 ½ hours.
I tell people all the time to be careful around water falls. Surfaces that might not look slick can be slick as axle grease. I don’t know if it just don’t sink in or they don’t believe it. Either way people gets hurt and often killed when a little common sense could have prevented it.